


Fanboys

by coplins



Series: Packrunners [44]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: First Meetings, Friendship/Love, M/M, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Surprises, The Brosters, The winchesters are fans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 21:11:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20712599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coplins/pseuds/coplins
Summary: Dick's got a surprise for the Winchesters. They don't know it yet. They still think they're here just to get a cup of coffee and hang out. But Dick's called two old friends of his that should show up at any minute now...





	Fanboys

**Author's Note:**

> We're doing a time jump again. This takes place after the date but before the Winchesters were invited to dinner at the Williams home.

* * *

They're sitting by a table for four in a cafe just on the edge of the slums. Dick's chosen to sit on the short end of the table between Sam and Dean instead of by the long end beside one of them. “So Sammy comes running like someone set fire to his ass, bypasses me with a howled warning, and then I see this motherfucking swarm of wasps coming right at me!” Dean’s in the middle of a vivid retelling of a story while Sam looks out of the window, embarrassed. 

Suddenly Sam’s eyes widen. “_Dean_,” he hisses. “Dean, it’s them!”

Dean cuts off to follow Sam’s gaze. “Holy shit!” He exclaims, just as wide-eyed.

Dick’s doing his best trying not to giggle in gleeful delight. He’d chosen this cafe because people around here generally don’t have TVs, a fact that is pretty important for the two walking by outside the window.

“It’s the Bro-sters,” Sam breathes reverently.

“I can see that, Sam, I’m not― Holy shit they’re coming in!” Dean grabs Sam's shirt over the table and stares at the door with lips parted.

Chad opens the door and holds it open for Brad. They look good. They've aged with the grace television demands. They've always been big men, broad and strong, but they've slimmed down since their quarterback days. Now they're the perfect mix of Primal and Progressive ideals - more heavyset than the slim ideal Prog Alpha, perhaps―Michael fits better into that bracket―but close enough. Brad's dressed in black jeans and a pea coat, Chad has blue jeans and a black leather jacket, both keep their hair short and are wearing sunglasses.

Dick keeps a grin off his face at the jumble of strong emotions he can smell on the Winchesters. Excitement and anxiety are the dominant scents, plain to be seen on their faces. Dick's never been one to drop names. He's never wanted to rely on other people's notoriety to get ahead. But he knows for certain that the Winchesters aren't friends with him to get a chance to meet Chad and Brad, and therefore there's nothing but fun to introduce them. Dick stands up when the two Alphas look around the room. Chad spots him, face splitting up in a wide grin. “The Main O-bro!” He exclaims and spreads his arms wide.

“Dicky! My man!” Brad says when Dick comes around the table to go greet them. 

He takes the three strides necessary to reach Chad’s open arms then has to laugh when Chad puts his nose by his throat, leans away far enough to make wide eyes at him and awed go “_Bro…_” before diving in and doing a so thorough scenting it tickles. Brad hugs him from behind occupying the other side of his neck and going so far as to suck on the gland behind the ear and then sucking in air through his mouth while smacking his tongue, tasting his scent without siphoning him.

Dick’s loathe to admit it but he’s been dreading this meeting. These two have been his companions for so many Heats over the years and should they not have liked his scent it would have hurt awfully. He’s worried needlessly if the budding arousal in their scent is to be believed.

Chad steps away from him holding onto him by the upper arms flaring under his sunglasses with a serious expression. “Bro, are you alright?” he asks, concerned.

“Yeah, bro. You called us and asked us to come visit, saying something big has happened but wouldn’t say what. A bro gets worried,” Brad chips in but unlike his much more sensitive partner, presses himself even closer to lick up more secretion from Dick’s throat. 

“This isn’t just big, this is life-altering big, bro. Are you alright?” Chad repeats. Dick knows he smells happy and it makes his heart squeeze in a good and painful way that Chad is ignoring the scent-input to look at the bigger picture to put himself in Dick’s place. 

“I’m quite alright, dear,” Dick assures him with a warm smile. “But as you surmised, it’s been life-altering. There are two people I’d like you to meet.” He frees himself of the Alphas and turns around to gesture at the Winchesters, just barely managing to hold back a cackle at the two brothers’ expressions. They’ve both stood up, Sam looking nervous, throat bobbing as he swallows dryly. Dean couldn't look more starstruck if you'd hit him with a wooden board on the back of his head. “Chad, Brad, this is my Main, Dean Winchester. And this is his brother Sam,” Dick says with a little smirk.

“Your Main?” Brad asks in surprise.

“Mmmhm,” Dick purrs.

“Far out!” Chad says grinning in delight at the Winchesters.

Dean comes around the table to properly greet them with full focus on them. He accidentally bumps the table corner with his hip, knocking over a glass of water that tips over the edge. His hand shoots out to catch it, the glass bounces off his hand so he quickly squats to catch it with a ‘_Fuck!_’ This time he succeeds before the glass reaches the floor. He stands up and fumbling sets the now empty glass down on the table, most of the water soaking his pants. He looks back at them with a suffering expression blushing beetroot red. Sam stands staring at Dean looking absolutely mortified.

This time Dick doesn’t hold back a chuckle, and in the moment of silence when Dean stands waiting for the earth to swallow him whole Dick says “They’re fans of yours,” to Brad and Chad.

Chad leans close and lifts a hand to cover his mouth in a stage whisper to Dick. “Really? I never would have guessed,” he jokes.

“Nice reflexes you've got there, bro," Brad says to Dean with a wink.

Dick hadn't thought Dean could get any redder, but lo and behold.

Dean chuckles awkwardly and rubs his neck. “Thanks?"

Brad's smile gets wider. He has turned a lot slicker since he became a TV star―a byproduct of people throwing themselves at you―but has retained his heart of gold. He tilts his head to the side, meaningfully showing his neck.

Dean rips himself from his frozen position to approach him. They’re almost of height but Brad is puffing his chest, holding his shoulders in a position that screams big, strong, _proud_ Alpha, while Dean is making himself smaller, submissive and awed in a way that is both startling and comical. Dick has seen Dean submissive before. Of course, he has. Submissive and passive, submissive and resentful, submissive and content, depending on who he’s interacting with and where they stand on the company ladder. But this is new. Usually, it’s Dean puffing himself up. When Dean puts his nose by Brad’s neck to scent Brad leans in closer to make sure Dean’s nose touches. Dean closes his eyes and mumbles “_Heimdallr_! You smell as good as on TV.” It’s a funny expression but makes total sense to anyone who isn’t noseblind. You see a photo of someone you’ll assume they smell good if you like what you see.

Brad lets out a dark chuckle and drags his nose along Dean’s neck a couple of times inhaling deeply until his nose is covered by secretion and Dean shivers, goosebumps on his skin. “A pleasure to meet you, Dean,” Brad says with a cocky, lopsided smirk.

“Likewise, Sir,” Dean says, voice rough.

“Just Brad.”

“Brad. Right. I’mma...” Dean gestures vaguely in Chad’s direction while still staring into Brad’s eyes as if spellbound.

“Go say hello to my partner,” Brad agrees.

Dick bites his lip not to laugh when the pair remains unmoving chest to chest looking at each other. Maybe Dick won’t be the only one sharing Chad and Brad’s bed tonight?

Dean visibly jerks when Sam―who’d been waiting patiently―clears his throat.

“Bro, he’s adorable,” Chad whispers.

“Certainly,” Dick agrees.

When Dean finally manages to rip himself out of the gaze lock and make his way over to Chad Sam’s rounding the table staring at the edge of the table with such concentration as if to avoid doing the same blunder as Dean, that Dick can no longer hold back a laugh.

After the awkward introductions are over and Chad and Brad have ordered they sit back down. This is the reason Dick chose to sit on the short end of the table. It means Chad and Brad have to sit beside the Winchesters and Dick gets a full view of them all. It’s hilarious to see how uncharacteristically jittery and nervous the Winchesters are. Chad’s seated beside Sam and Brad beside Dean. The waitress brings their coffees and then Brad turns his attention to Dick, his arm resting over the back of Dean’s chair the same way Mike and Luci used to do back in college - ‘claiming’ whoever sat beside them. “Okay, bro. I think it’s storytime. We always thought your scentlessness was incurable,” he says.

“Yeah, bro. And last time we checked you were mated to Crowley and regarded Packrunning with disdain,” Chad adds.

“Yeah, and now you introduce us to your _Main_ and smell like everything good in this world.”

“Yeah, so you gotta tell us what happened, bro. For starters, how did you get your scent?”

“Quite by accident,” Dick answers. “Dean figured out how to unlock it. Instinctively, as I understood it?”

Dean nods. “Yeah. Like, I was letting him siphon me and every time he did I felt compelled to siphon him back. But any time I asked he just asked me ‘why?’. I couldn’t tell him why. ‘S more like, ‘_you gotta_’, you get what I’m sayin’?” Dean makes air quotes around ‘you gotta’. For once Sam isn’t cringing at Dean’s behaviour. He’s sitting quietly with a bemused smile stirring his coffee. Needlessly, since he’s drinking it black with no sugar unlike Dean, who takes his coffee with all extras he can possibly fit in it, preferably topped with whipped cream and sprinkles if it’s available.

“That’s what it took? Him siphoning you?” Brad asks.

“When we both siphoned each other it created some form of feedback loop in my system that triggered my body to stop producing dissimulotonin,” Dick explains. “Although, I confess suddenly having people change their behaviour around me is at times distressing.”

“I get that, bro. Must be pretty damn rough,” Chad says with sympathy in his eyes. Trust Chad with his beautiful heart to understand what so many others don’t. “Especially since it happened so late in life. I wish we’d have known.”

“Yeah. We wanted to but it seemed rude to ask. You siphoned us but made no indication that we were welcome to do it back,” Brad says.

“Yeah, bro. And you got to respect the Main O-bro,” Chad adds.

“Word,” Brad says and holds his fist so Chad can fistbump him over the table.

Dean giggles then slaps a hand over his mouth. When he sees everyone is looking at him he holds his hands up in surrender. “Nevermind me. It’s just, holy shit, you really sound like that. It ain’t an act for TV. It’s just… I dunno.”

Brad smirks. “That’s us. Keeping it real.”

“That’s awesome,” Dean says.

Brad winks at him and Dean _almost_ giggles again.

“So how did you meet our Dicky boy?” Chad asks.

“We met at work,” Dean says.

Dick smirks. “Dean here wanted a job so he walked into our office building and told the receptionist that he’d been hired as the new janitor and was there to sign the paperwork. Not that we had actually hired a new janitor but by his power of persuasion and sheer brazenness he managed to make us conjure the legal paperwork to make him an employee.”

Chad and Brad laugh, Sam smiling proudly at Dean.

“I admit to nothing,” Dean says, smirking cockily.

“Was that how you ended up in Dick’s office? He picked up your trail?” Brad asks.

“Oh no, dear,” Dick answers before Dean can. “We wouldn’t have found him out if Luci hadn’t sexually harassed Dean and Mike filed a complaint about it.”

It’s comical how in tune with each other Chad and Brad are. Both their eyebrows climb up, eyes going wide in surprise at the same time. 

“Luci?”  
“Luci?” they say in tandem. 

“_Our_ Luci?”  
“_Our_ Luci?”

Dick sniggers and nods. “The one and only.”

“_Bro…_ I’d never pegged him to do something like that. Drunk Mike, maybe, but Luce? Man, he’d back off at the tiniest hint of disinterest,” Chad says seriously while Brad nods along with a concerned frown.

“Hey, now it wasn’t like that,” Dean protests. “I was crazy about the fucker and his brothers long before I met him. Fucking loved cleaning their offices just so I could smell them. So he wasn’t _harassing_ me, okay? He pushed me up against a wall scenting me. Like, seriously. An Alpha like that? Tall, strong, fangs for days and red eyes to boot? That shit does it for me, okay? It’s just that, he’s my boss, right? One of the big Kahunas. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I said no. Hell, I could get a new job. If the ploy that I definitely didn’t pull worked in one place it will work in another. But I’d made friends. I liked my job. And if I had to get a new job I would no longer have access to their scent. But I did say no. Barely a whisper and, _bam_, he backed the hell off. So don’t give him shit for it, okay?”

“I see where the problem lies. That’s why Mike turned him in, right? I can smell that Sam is mated to more than one of the brothers. You can't hit up a bro that can't say no,” Brad says.

“They wanted to court Dean and Sam so they couldn’t have that power imbalance hanging over their heads,” Dick agrees.

“Yeah. It sucks being into someone but feeling like you ain’t got a choice,” Dean says. “Normally it doesn’t matter if I like an Alpha. No food, no flare, no fuck. Them’s the rules. I―”

Both Chad and Brad flare brightly. “How about Ming Garden if you like Chinese?” Chad says playfully.

“Or Taj Mahal if Indian cuisine is more to your liking?” Brad suggests.

“Italian at Belladona?”

“Or if you like sushi we know this amazing place tucked away in an alley in the outskirts of the business district―”

“―where you get the best damned sushi in the country―”

“―so we never do a stopover in New York without going there.” 

Sam and Dean look back and forth between Chad and Brad with amused grins as the pair take turns saying the sentence without missing a beat in between. 

“Tell me, gentlemen, while we are on the topic of power-imbalanced relationships, do you always try to knot your fans?” Dick jabs with a pleasant smile.

“Of course not!” Chad says, having the decency to look embarrassed.

Brad shakes his head. “I’m not going to lie and say it never happens. But we don’t do it often.”

“Yeah, bro. You told us you’re running with them.”

Brad looks at Dean when he speaks. “Unlike the greater part of our fans you’ll be in our life for a long, long time and you’ll come to see us as the men we are instead of celebrities. Which means I’ll feel comfortable hooking up with you without feeling like an asshole for it.”

Chad looks at Sam. “If we’d end up making out I feel sure you’d be saying you’d made out with Chad, not ‘one of the Brosters guys’.”

Sam’s cheeks turn red and he swallows, smiling shyly. “Is that why you’re unmated?”

Chad answers. “In part, yes. It’s not the only reason. Don’t get us wrong, we’ve had relationships―”

“―fallen in and out of love―” Brad says.

“―all that stuff. It’s inevitable. But it’s never worked out. We need a mate to love us equally―”

“―and to understand that I love that bastard more than life itself,” they finish in unison, then laugh at each other, giving each other a warm look.

Chad looks back at Sam. “It’s just never worked out. Even if she doesn’t want to mate both of us she or he needs to be accepting of how close we are. We can’t date Conservatives since they’re monogamous and hold the relationship between mates as something sacred above all else. Progs can be much more accepting about our feelings―"

"But then they try to make us dial down our Primal behaviour and Chad converted to get away from that. He was raised as a Prog where almost everyone was stunted and always felt like the odd one out."

"My family and friends are all very loving and supportive but I often felt like I had to fake it in front of them. I didn't even get what I was missing until I got to college and was assigned the same room as an unaffiliated Primal." Chad shares a fond, meaningful smile with Brad. "He was already unpacked. I stepped inside all nervous and jittery and went, 'Bro? I'm your roommate?' and Brad bounced off the bed with the biggest grin. He flared, teethed, held out his hand and went 'Wicked to meet you, bro.' Everything I'd been taught told me I should be afraid."

"You were _not_ afraid, bro!" Brad laughs.

"No, my instincts told me you were friendly."

"If anyone got scared it was me. Chad flared and dropped full fangs like _tzing_.”

“I had to learn how to do it slowly,” Chad chuckles. 

“I was like 'oh shit he's gonna kick my ass'. I'd never seen anyone drop fangs that quickly. But he was smiling timidly and taking my hand," Brad says with a grin.

"And he said 'Don't be shy. Take a good sniff, bro, and pulled me in. So suddenly we had our noses pressed to each others' necks."

"He wouldn't stop scenting. It got kind of awkward. Or it would have been if he didn't smell like coming home. Then he said 'Am I doing this right? I'm raised a Prog,' and I was like, '_Ooh_'. It all made sense then, right? The fang-drop and overly bright flare."

"I didn't understand my feelings for Brad at first. Where I grew up poly pairings were rare and all relationships were strictly man and woman. Alpha or Omega didn't matter but men liked women, end of story."

"Yeah. And I was raised as an unaffiliated Primal. My parents are like, 'you do you' but since Alphas can't mate Alphas it didn't strike me that I was in love with the bastard. Not until Dick got involved did I start to get clued in."

"Brad took it upon himself to teach me how to be a Primal after I spent the rest of our first day writhing in pain after having dropped fangs that fast. Then Dick let us know that we were free to flirt with him and help him through his Heat, and Brad decided to teach me how to court Primally."

"And Dick's like, why have one Alpha when you can have two?" Brad chuckles.

"And I didn't get why sex was so much better with Dick and Brad. It shouldn't have been when there was another Alpha to compete. But firstly, I was as pleased anytime Brad got laid as I was when I got it on. And when we shared I was… I didn't have words to describe how perfect it felt."

"You were in denial so deep I was drowning in it, bro," Brad sniggers.

"I didn't get what I was feeling until the very moment we pack-bonded. I don't think any of us did."

"Hah! Speak for yourself. I knew you were the love of my life a lot earlier."

"Really?"

"Yeah, bro. Dick was the first to start hinting at it. He was all, 'Packrunners are trash. You're not trash but you should be running in pack, now kiss!'"

"I did _not_ say that," Dick protests in amusement.

Brad waves dismissively. "Not with those words but the meaning was the same." Dick shrugs a shoulder conceding to the point. "Anyway," Brad goes on, "Dick was the first and most persistent but it was my dad who called me out on it."

"Really? You never told me that. When?" Chad asks.

"Remember the summer I'd quit suppressants? When I came home from college that summer I was happier than I'd ever been. At the end of the summer our friendship bond was fading and I was depressed as fuck." Brad looks at the Winchesters. "Okay, so me and Chad were both on the football team. Dad used to play professionally and he's been my coach at home all my life. Then one day we were passing the ball back and forth and I zoned out. Ball hit me smack dab in the face. I said, 'I'm sorry, dad, I don't know what the hell is wrong with me' and he goes, 'but I do. You've got a bad case of bond-loss depression if I've ever seen one.' I thought that only happened with mating bonds so I was confused. But he sat me down and talked to me. Pointed out the correlation between my friendship bond with Chad and how I felt inside. Said you could love an Alpha the same way you love an Omega. Said, 'Son, any strong love that's reciprocated is equally beautiful and should be cherished.' I'll admit I wasn't thrilled about it. I said 'What's the point? It's not like I can mate him.' And dad was quiet for a while before he said, 'There's another bond just as strong, if not stronger. Or so I've heard.' So, of course, I was curious. He said 'the bond the Main or Patriarch forges with pack members is said to be the strongest there is.' And he was looking at me pointedly. He was giving me his blessing to do whatever made me happy. It gave me a lot to think about."

"I remember that summer. Like you, I was super happy when I got home but at the end of the summer, I could burst into tears for nothing. My parents were worried about me. At first, they thought something bad had happened at college and said I didn't have to go back. That triggered a full-on panic attack. I begged them not to prevent me from returning."

"They'd never do that. His parents are the most loving, caring people you'll ever meet. But it's difficult for stunted Progs to raise someone as instinct-driven and Primal as Chadster. It's like asking an eye-blind to tell you the colour of the car that just passed by. They can't do it. They can hear the engine but not the colour."

"Exactly like that. They knew I was depressed but since they can't smell bonds they didn't know I had a strong bond fading. They eventually figured out it was something to do with Primal hormones."

"I remember the first time I met them. Chad was so nervous. He'd called ahead and said he wanted to introduce the love of his life and that we were pack-bonded. He was freaking the hell out all the way there, afraid they'd be disappointed in him. But they were all very sweet. Then when he and I were sitting on the couch cuddling watching a movie his parents came, paused the movie and sat down on the table in front of us. They said, 'We want you to know how glad we are that you two found each other. You make our son so happy and we might not always understand, but we will always be there for you and consider you part of the family. We want to thank you for everything you have done to make our son happier than we've ever seen him.' And this big sap," Brad points at Chad, "started bawling like a little kit."

"Bro!" Chad protests with thinly veiled humour.

"_Bro_," Brad counters with raised eyebrows a lá ‘Where’s the lie?’

"Yeah, okay. I did. My parents are good folks. They've made a lot of mistakes regarding me solely because they wanted the best for me and didn’t understand my biology. I know they love me. But I went and chose to live so differently than them and I didn't want to make them sad, you know?"

"I know. I felt the same when I told dad I didn't want to be a professional football player.” Brad snort-huffs in amusement. “That was anticlimactic. He just said he knew that. Said my passion always lay in art and football was just something that I was good at that helped pay for college."

"Art?" Dean asks with keen interest.

"Yeah, bro. Not painting and stuff. But things with clean lines. I love drawing houses. But I also like making logos and stylize stuff into simple shapes. Every house we've built from scratch on the show is designed by me. We don't have an architect in the background to make me look good. And Chad loves to help people and to build things."

Dick notes how Brad's thumb discretely caresses Dean's upper arm. Dean starts purring an all-is-well. It's music to Dick's ears. Low, barely perceivable in the normal hearing range, it has the same effect as a good massage but to the mind. He can smell how everyone at the table gets less anxious by it, himself included, scents turning more content. Brad adds his own Patriarch purr and when it syncs with Dean's even people at close by tables start smelling more content.

"How did you get started in television?" Sam asks.

"Long story, bro. I'll give you the shorter version,” Chad says. “When we finished college I got a job as an engineer and Brad as an architect. We lived together but had problems matching our schedules. I felt like I was always missing him, you know? He always came home pissy because his boss kept dismissing his ideas or changing stuff without telling him, and he went to sleep almost as soon as he got home. We started talking about maybe start our own firm, do something together. We're just two but all the Packrunners we've met that have been the most content have all been part of a pack with a common goal."

"Not necessarily doing the same thing. Like if they owned a restaurant some would serve, some would cook, and some would handle the books. Or like Mike handling the money and Luce being a lawyer in the same business. Bottom line is, they’re working together towards a common goal instead of just working separately to come home to the same home. And we wanted that. Chad was often away for stretches of time working on-site, then he’d come home and I was stuck at home working too long hours in a stifling job. Any time he went away I got stressed and annoyed.”

“Yeah, and the nights I didn’t sleep at home I would find myself standing by a window with this call lodged in my throat, as if my heart wanted to yell for him to come to me. Which makes no sense since we both had perfectly good phones.”

“That’s the pack bond at work,” Sam states.

“And it makes you the Patriarch,” Dean says pointing at Brad.

Brad nods with that cocky smirk of his.

“Yeah,” Chad says. “It wasn’t working for us. So we started toying with the idea of doing something of our own. We took a vacation together and went to New Orleans to decide what we were going to do.”

“That’s when the hurricane hit.”

“Total gamechanger, bro. Total.”

“We’re there amongst all these people that have lost everything and we can’t _not_ do anything.”

“So we start helping. And when we helped we inspired others to help―”

“―and managed to raise morale―”

“―giving people hope. We made shelters out of debris, repaired what we could, telling jokes as we do on the show. It wasn’t enough. The news covered it like this was just something that had happened―”

“―in a way that let people dissociate.”

“We wanted the world to not only know but _feel_. Then someone made a joke that they should point a camera at us and let it be a TV show and someone else said they’d watch the hell out of a show like that. We looked at each other and went, ‘That’s it!’”

“Came home six months later, unemployed―”

―because you can’t just not show up at work for half a year and expect not to get fired. Packed up our stuff and went to California to try to pitch our idea.”

“Did you still have your apartment?” Sam wants to know.

“Yeah, bro. Our parents had our asses covered.”

“You went to Cali and they gave you a TV show just like that?” Dean asks.

Chad and Brad snigger and shake their heads. “Nah, bro. Not a chance.”

“If there’s one thing you need to know about the movie and TV business it’s that there’s a pack, the Talons, that owns it all. They own fucking everything and they’re out to get you. They’ll either recruit you to them or they’ll bind you with contracts. One medium-sized core and so fucking many cells you can be sure that they’re Talons even if they’re called something else,” Chad says.

“And the Talons follow the money. They hold the power to dictate what will be popular but cater only to the safe money cows. They did offer to let us shoot our show but then we couldn’t admit we were in a sexual relationship or ran in pack. They didn’t want to put off their Conservative audience. And that didn’t work for us. Chad’s been holding back who he is until college and I couldn’t stand the idea to shove him back into denying himself.”

“They almost had us, man. They’re good at sucking up. But if a deal seems too good to be true it usually is. So we tried to find a network that wasn’t owned by them that would have us, to no avail.”

“Then out of nowhere, someone we knew in college showed up with a kit on her heels. She asked us for help. She’s a Prog with very weak senses who got knocked up by a Primal and she’d been raising her kit in a closed Prog community. But Kit, her daughter, had started manifesting strong Primal traits. Some bullshit had gone down in their collective regarding her daughter so she'd left. She remembered that Chad was a convert and asked us to help Kit understand her body and what it means to be Primal. She still wanted to raise Kit as a Prog but she's a great woman who believes you have to be who you are."

"With other words, she's filling the kit's head with Prog propaganda," Dean says, wrinkling his nose.

"I guess you could say that. But a Prog lives a lot like us. It's not a bad philosophy," Chad says.

Brad snorts. "Yeah. Unless you have to deny yourself to live by it," he says derisively.

"Which is why she contacted us, bro," Chad points out, frowning at his partner.

Brad holds up his hands in surrender as if this is an old argument. When he puts them back, one arm going over the back of Dean's chair again, Dick notes that it's more deliberate, fingers hooking around Dean's upper arm instead of sneakily grazing. Dean leans into the touch. "You're right. You asked how we ended up on TV. Our friend is a remarkable woman. She got into college with a full scholarship or her parents would only have been able to afford a year's schooling. Once in college, it was soon discovered that she had talent beyond what's normal. She was a business major and got herself invited to a special national program for only a few select students. It required that she would transfer schools. She turned it down but changed her mind last minute when her roommate smelled that she was pregnant. That's the last we heard of her until she showed up on our doorstep. By then she'd amassed considerable wealth and was a powerhouse unto herself. She had contacts and money so she found the production company as well as the small Progressive network that we started out on. She always rewards people who are good to her and Kit."

“So she helped us. Then when we were contacted by a bigger network. All the demands we had were suddenly fine now that we started to get popular. Then after that season we got picked up by the network we’re currently on, and we love the life. Money’s rolling in, we get to travel around the country together and meet interesting people with extraordinary tales to tell."

"It sounds exhausting to be away from home all the time," Sam says.

Brad smirks. "Chad _is_ my home, bro."

"I don't agree," Dean says. "It sounds like a dream job. Travelling all over. Getting to build stuff." He gets something wistful over him when he says it.

"You ever considered working being on television? You got a face as if you were born to become a star," Brad says. "You both do."

"Be careful," Chad sniggers, "if you're not careful he'll start pitching ideas for shows and before you know it you're standing there with the ink drying on a contract. He can be worse than the Talons when he gets going."

"Hah. I can see Sam hosting an educational show about a gargantuan nerd travelling to historical sites getting all riled up about old pottery and stuff," Dean teases.

Sam gives him a bitch face. "Not interested. Besides, I'm starting college so I won't have time to do TV."

"How about you, bro? Want to take a swing at becoming a celebrity?" Brad asks Dean leaning closer with a flirty smile.

"Nah,” Dean says with a smirk. He tries to play it cool but the nerves and excitement in his scent give him away. He gets more serious. “In the future, perhaps? I ain't ruling nothing out. But I've just started as a trainee in sales and acquisitions and we're en route to merge our pack with the Williams pack. It's no good timing, if you get what I'm sayin'?"

"When you say you're going to merge your packs…" Chad says and gestures between the Winchesters and Dick while looking at Dick meaningfully raising his eyebrows in question.

Dick smiles with butterflies in his belly. "Yes, dear, me too."

Both Chad and Brad light up.

"_Bro!_"

"I'm so happy for you, bro!"

"Does that mean we're breaking tradition tonight?" Chad asks with a lopsided smile. He shows no outward apprehension about what answer he’d get.

Dick snorts. "Certainly not. If we're to stop that it'll have to be your decision. Accepting our relationship is a prerequisite to be with me." Dick isn’t ready to cut off any of his loyal friends or adjust his relationships. Not even for the Williamses. He doesn’t have a lot of close friends and the thought of someone else dictating how he’s allowed to interact with the people who’s been there for him through the years makes him rebel.

"Tradition?" Sam asks.

Dick smirks slyly. "Why have one Alpha when you can have two?"

"That's the spirit," Dean says with a grin.

"We've been friends as well as lovers since the first Heat they helped me through," Dick clarifies. 

"Crowley was okay with that?" Sam asks.

"Bro, sometimes when he knew he was going to be away for a long period of time he'd call to check if we could do a stopover," Chad divulges with a smile. Dick didn’t know that.

"He'd say, 'any of you overgrown attention-seekers planning to come by and do something actually useful for a change'?"

Dick and Dean laugh while Sam smiles bemusedly.

"That's my Crowley, alright,” Dick says fondly, heart aching for the long mateship they’d shared. It might have been dying for a long while but he’ll always treasure the good moments and love Crowley for as long as he’ll live. “Sounds like a sarcastic asshole but loyal and caring to a fault." 

"So tell me, Dean," Brad says and leans in closer again, making Dean fidget unconsciously. "You're the Main. But you can't be more than two, three, tops?"

"He's older than Gabe," Dick says.

"Presented at thirteen," Sam chips in. "He was our Main back at home in our birth-pack too."

Both Chad and Brad raise their eyebrows in question with a concerned little wrinkle between the eyebrows.

"Hey, no. I know what you're thinking and no. I haven't done the dirty with any Alpha relatives, okay? What happened was…" Dean goes on to tell them how he ended up being the Main of his birth pack.

“Bro… Sorry about your loss. But can I ask an insensitive question?” Chad asks.

“Shoot.”

“Did you ever feel the pull to… you know?”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever,” Dean answers lightly with a surreptitious glance at Sam who is temporarily distracted by a text message on his phone. “But I didn’t, and we don’t talk about it.” He makes a dismissive gesture with his hand.

Chad nods and looks down at his coffee. “I feel it too when we go home to visit my folks. Not towards mom, but my little sisters. It makes me a bit sad because they can’t understand it since they’re stunted, or Betas if you prefer to call them that. Progs like my family often stay living together and usually don’t move far away. We’re close-knit. Like a pack. So it’s rough to no longer be able to be part of that closeness with them. The only blessing is that they can’t smell when I get… excited... around them.”

“My uncle told me he once ran into an adult daughter he didn’t know he had. Said he’d never wanted to knot someone as badly as her and she felt the same. They keep in contact through phone and letters but don’t dare meet up for more than hours for fear of crossing the line,” Brad says.

“I contacted a professor that specialised in this area to see if it could be fixed. It can’t. But he had a theory of why this phenomenon exists. Os are supposed to wander and wander far away. That’s the natural way. Before, it was thought we lost the repulsion to keep our species going if an O can’t wander. But he thought it had to do with the Alpha instinct to care for their kit. The phenomenon happens almost exclusively between siblings growing up together, fathers and their O offspring or Alphas that helped raise the kit. He’d focussed most of his studies on Alphas who’d never met their offspring before as well as siblings separated at birth. Turns out, Alpha and Omega siblings only feel compulsive attraction if they've at least spent part of their kit or Juviehood together. Alpha fathers, on the other hand, experience an extreme compulsive attraction. But only if they can smell their offspring. So professor Arkham thinks it's a belated nurturing instinct that gets skewed by adult hormones since the Alpha biologically isn't supposed to have interactions with their grown Omega offspring."

"That sounds more plausible than what we were taught in school," Sam, who has put away his phone, says. Then he frowns. “Except… why would the offspring feel the same attraction? Kits are drawn to bond with caretakers, not necessarily their parents?” It’s a valid question that makes Dick wonder if Professor Arkham is one of those Alpha-centric Conservatives that regard Omegas as irrelevant.

"Sure. Whatever. It's interesting an' all, but it doesn't matter why unless they find a cure. It's a thing that exists that we have to deal with when we experience it. End of story, moving on," Dean says, clearly uncomfortable.

Sam draws breath to speak, but Chad forestalls him. "So, Sam, college. Have you decided on a major yet?"

"No. Not, not yet? I've been thinking…" Sam goes on to tell them what he wants to be and when Brad prods him with questions keeping him distracted, Dean gives Chad a look of gratitude, Chad winking in return. Dick thinks Dean might have wanted to hear more about what the professor had to say and that it's Sam's presence, in particular, making him uncomfortable when the subject is brought up. The two of them aren't completely different people around each other but both alter their behaviour, not always in a positive way. It's nothing Dick's going to poke at. The two of them are in the middle of shifting from a parent-kit relationship to one between two adults and Sam is yet to find exactly who he is, battling conflicting emotions of self. If the problem persists for years or if a serious conflict flares up he might go in to mediate but they're friends, not employees, so Dick resolves to only watch unless asked for advice.

The conversation flows on well, switching from one topic to another without awkward breaks. Chad and Brad have become masters at talking freely with strangers since they started their TV show and the Winchester brothers are outgoing and friendly. Dick finds it endearing when the Winchesters brag about each other.

“Oh, yeah, he built that. You could probably leave Dean in a hangar full of parts for a spaceship and he’d end up building it without instructions as long as you tell him what it’s supposed to be,” Sam beams after having told them of some ingenious thing Dean had built.

“Hah! Not true!” Dean protests with a grin. “Why the hell would I build a spaceship? There are no interstellar trade stations with booze, gambling and tentacled aliens to visit. Nah, I’d scavenge the parts to build a car,” he jokes.

Sam groans. “Again with the tentacles. What’s wrong with you?” he complains, making everyone laugh.

“Look, I’m not dumb, okay? Building things and figuring out how practical stuff works is fun, right? But Sam’s the smart one. He reads something he retains it. And he’s great at doing research…” Dean launches into praise that makes Sam flustered and red-faced. But when Dean brings up his sensitive nose he tells them himself about how he tracked down Raphael plus how Dean mistook Gabe’s scent for Mike’s after the DMV meeting. Dick and Dean expand on how they met and how Dick started running with them.

When it’s time for dinner Dick lets slip that sushi is Raff’s favourite and that Luci’s cried every time he’s tried it, so naturally the Winchesters choose the sushi place. Chad and Brad’s hidden gem is a small but classy place that has barstool seating by a conveyor belt as well as a few secluded, low tables in the back, where you sit cross-legged on pillows, each table separated by shoji screens for privacy. Chad and Brad order one giant mixed platter and another, smaller, for Sam.

Sam frowns. “Why did you order special for me?”

“They put something called wasabi on it and since you have a nose as sensitive as Lucifer it’ll hurt eating it, bro. We ordered a platter without wasabi for you," Chad says.

"You heard him. You're too weak to handle our food," Dean teases. Once again he's seated between Brad and Dick, Sam between Dick and Chad. All five of them are sitting on the same side of the oval table.

Sam huffs indignantly. "I don't need special treatment. I can eat whatever you eat." To prove himself, he reaches for a piece of sushi with salmon on top from their platter.

"I'm serious, bro. You got nothing to prove," Brad warns, a corner of his mouth curling upward.

Sam frowns deeper and sniffs the sushi suspiciously.

"Hold on, Sam dear," Dick says and digs up his phone. “Even though we recently met I consider us to be good friends―”

“Of course. We’re pack,” Sam interrupts.

Dick hums with a tiny smirk. “Indeed. Therefore I feel comfortable filming this so I can show all your mates." He hits record and points the camera at Sam.

"Oh, har har," Sam says, giving him a bitch face before taking a defiant bite. "This isn't that bad," he says while chewing.

The thing about wasabi is that while it does have a sting in its smell and tastes strongly, the full effect―a Sam is about to discover―happens when you swallow since you give a little push in the back of the mouth with your tongue. Siphoning Lite™, if you will. Everyone holds their breath watching Sam with suspense.

“I don’t get what the big―” Sam swallows, “―deal is a―” His eyes suddenly go wide and starts to water. “_**OH GODS, IT BURNS!!!**_” He reaches for the water while everyone else laugh at him. Water doesn’t help at all. Sam squeezes his eyes closed, red-faced fanning himself with his hands, tears streaming freely. 

After having laughed at him Chad takes pity on him and reaches for the gari (pickled ginger). “Bro, eat this. It’s also strong but it’ll help. Trust me, bro,” he says and holds out the gari.

Sam gobbles it up then makes a face of pure disgust that sets everyone off laughing again. The gari, followed by a bowl of miso soup, does help, though.

Dean is a bit apprehensive about trying. It turns out that he, unlike Sam and Luci, likes wasabi on his sushi. It has a sting that hurts a little. But it’s the good kind of pain. Like taking Luci’s giant knot or getting your neck bitten during sex. Dick says as much which leads to a general discussion about good versus bad pain. Sam enjoys the vegetarian and egg sushi variations the most (from his wasabi-free platter). Dean, on the other hand, prefers all of the meaty fishes. He also likes the octopus ones until Sam starts spouting facts about octopuses, pointing out how smart they are and all the things they’re capable of. Dean has to spit his piece out. “Fuck. I can’t eat this. It’s like eating a human,” he says, interestingly enough putting ‘human-like intelligence’ with ‘human’ or at least ‘equal’.

After they’ve eaten they bring in saké but Sam begs off and says he has to go to work soon. Dean tells Sam to call in sick. Sam tells Dean to go fuck himself. Dean calls saké sugar water and claims it’s impossible to get drunk on ‘this weak shit’. That doesn’t stop him from trying and succeeding. Dick and Dean stay after Sam’s left. They follow Chad and Brad to their hotel. In the elevator Chad and Brad bracket Dick, deep-purring straight into the skin of his neck. Dick shivers and purrs his approval.

“Fuck, yeah. That’s my boy!” Dean encourages with a big grin, watching them.

Brad turns his head to look at Dean with a catty smirk. “I’d purr for you too if you’re interested, sweetheart.”

Dean lets out an awkward, high-pitched laugh, cheeks heating up. “Look, I’m a hedonistic sonnova bitch, okay? I’d like nothing more than to take either or both of y’all’s knots. Preferably at the same time while Dicky takes a ride on me. But y’all said you don’t like to fuck your fans cuz you feel dehumanised and I gotta be straight with you, I ain’t over my ‘Holy shit, it’s the Bro-sters’ moment, okay?”

Chad and Brad share a look then as one turn their heads to pointedly deep-purr Dean. Dick chuckles and reaches out to grab Dean by his belt to pull him in for a kiss. He smells so excited, aroused and nervous that Dick doesn’t doubt for a moment that his consent would be anything but enthusiastic.

He is right. And that night he gets to experience how rewarding it is to share two Alphas he loves with Dean. Dean might have claimed to be starstruck but it doesn't show in bed.

They're both content and happy when they walk home after breakfast. Halfway to the Winchesters' home Dean's scent suddenly changes to anxious and a little sad.

"I don't wish to pry into matters that are none of my business―" Dick starts.

Dean interrupts him with a snigger and a shoulder bump. "Yeah, you do. It's human fucking nature," he says with a wink and a grin.

Dick chuckles. "You got me, dear. I'm just concerned about why you went from happy to sad for no apparent reason."

Dean wipes the fake mirth from his face, shoves his hands into his pockets and looks at his feet as he walks. "I dunno, man… Back in the days when it was just me an' Cas it really was just me an' Cas, you know? Before he died he was the only one I'd been with. We'd talked about bringing someone else in. Mostly we talked about a second mate for me. But I was curious about sex with others and he shared my enthusiasm and curiosity. It just never happened before he, uh…" Dean falls quiet for a bit. Dick keeps his silence, waiting for Dean to go on.

Dean kicks a pebble. "Cas and I were so tight, almost unhealthily tight, you know? And with him, sex and love was always the same thing. If he'd have insisted I never have sex with anyone else I wouldn't even have hesitated to agree. I didn't know anything else, right?... After he died… When I came out of my acute depression… I didn't have anyone in the pack to help me through Heats so I went out to find strangers to do the job. I discovered that I fucking love sex. Sex just as sex, not only as an extension of love. To me, those two are separate, right? I knew dad hooked up with Os often enough. And when I came home smelling of sex he'd smirk and tell me I took after mom more and more each day. So she too was hedonistic, right?"

Dean falls quiet again. Dick gives him time. It's a long walk.

"Sex is more than just pleasure to me. In my experience, most people are the most open and real postcoitally. Like when you're knotted together with nothing but time most will be more talkative with no macho walls up.” Dick thinks that it might be because Dean lowers any macho walls too. “It's a great way to get to know people. I fucking love it, man. I love it and I'm gonna confess something to you. Some of my best sexual experiences have been with random strangers. With Cas sex was great because I could never be close enough, you know? But with him… it's not… it's not making love I miss the most. It's being together. Sitting on the fence together eating apples, lying in bed talking, doing the dishes, just… _being_." He says it as if he’s just confessed a sin.

Dick's about to say that Dean doesn't have to feel bad for Cas not being the best sex he'd ever had―they were young and inexperienced―but Dean forestalls him.

"Now I'm crashing into love with several Alphas at once. They all love each other sharing willingly and that should be enough, right? I’m not thinking about polite knottings or even sex with out-pack people I love. I can argue my case about that. But what if when I get mated they demand I stop hooking up with strangers? Can I? Do I want to? Would it be skipping out of something I just enjoy doing or an integral part of my personality?"

Dick tries really hard not to giggle at Dean's existential crisis. He _tries_. Dean gives him a stinky eye and Dick feels compelled to defend himself. "I apologize. It never ceases to amaze me how important knotting is to you."

"Yeah, well, tonight was fucking amazing, okay? And I mighta jumped into bed with the Bro-sters but this morning I rolled out of bed with two potentially good friends," Dean responds grumpily. 

"I'm not critiquing you for it, dear. I find it endearing. I don't think it will be a problem. At the date you said you're hedonistic and that you weren't planning on suddenly not be. Marlon said that it wouldn't be a problem as long as you don't try to impose other rules on your mates. Jealousy issues will be dealt with."

"Right. Dealt with.” Dean’s quiet for a few beats. “It's just that. Brad and Chad are friends of Mike and Luci. I've hooked up with people at work. What if the Williams way to ‘deal with it’ is to punish my partners? Drop their friendships or fire people or whatever."

Dick purses his lips. "Is that a pack dynamic you'd stand for?"

Dean blinks, then all the anxiety disappears from his scent. He straightens up and smiles, relieved. "No, I wouldn't. You're right. Thanks, man. For a moment I forgot to consider it from pack point of view." He chuckles. "Usually thinking like a Main means disregarding myself, not the other way around. But when I think about any of Sam's mates doing that to him I only see emotional blackmail which isn't okay and is something that I would have to step in to solve. It's fucking stupid to think that the same wouldn't apply to my own relationships." 

"Precisely."

Dick's still in a state of wonder about the Williams being as interested in him as he is in them, romantically. It's not a singularly good feeling. He has a lot of doubts and fears about the future―most probably unrealistic and all in his head―but at no point had it struck him to worry that the Williams would misuse power to gain control of their mates. He's grateful Dean's around to worry about that so they can nip any tendencies like that in the bud.

Overall, though, he's happy. Happy the Winchesters got along with Chad and Brad. Happy to have met the Winchesters. Trying to trust Dean to know what he’s doing with the pack merger. 

Once they get back to the Winchesters’ apartment Dean gets into bed and turns on the TV. Sam isn’t home. He texted during the night saying he was staying at Aze’s since he’s meeting Gabe for lunch today. Dick goes to the kitchen to get some water. In the background, he can hear familiar voices on TV announcing “..._And you’re watching, the Brosters!_” He chuckles to himself. He ponders about what Chad and Brad told the Winchesters about how they got started with their show. It’s strange how they hadn’t told him that before. He knew they’d struggled to find anyone who would let them do their show, but they’d never mentioned the O from college with her kit. Dick raises the glass to drink. He wonders if he also knows her? The description, as impersonal as it was, sounded familiar somehow, except for the pregnancy part. A business major who suddenly transferred schools.

Dick suddenly chokes on his water and sprays it out in a fit of coughs. He knew a remarkable Progressive business major who went AWOL leaving a broken heart in her wake. Leaving a brokenhearted Primal Packrunner with a penchant for forgetting condoms when he was drunk. “Oh, dear,” Dick croaks, wide-eyed. But why would Chad and Brad feel comfortable talking about her now? He answers his own question. Because a kit born when they were in college would very likely be presenting about now. Any earlier and the dad might have gotten wind of it and as Marlon explained on the date, an unborn kit would be considered part of a pack no matter who the mother was. If she didn’t want to join the pack and wanted to raise the kit as a Prog, secrecy would be the only option. Trying to battle for custody would be battling windmills _until_ the kit presented as an O.

“You alright?” Dean calls from the other room.

“I’m fine, dear,” Dick assures.

Michael Williams has a daughter.

Dick grins at that juicy piece of gossip. He always liked Kate, Mike’s Prog sweetheart. For some reason it pleases him to hear she chose to be the master of her own fate, conquering the world with a little kit at her side.

He’ll keep her secret, like he’s keeping so many others.

From the other room, he hears Dean mutter to himself. “Holy shit, I’ve fucked the Bro-sters…”

Dick laughs and goes to join him, taking his phone out of his pocket to send the clip of Sam reacting to wasabi to the Williams brothers.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> A while ago Gamermom wrote an awesome headcanon and I would have loved it nothing more than if it could have been 100% canon. In my mind, in an alternative universe, it definitely is. But she wrote it before you readers had been properly introduced to Marlon, our archetype villain who just happens to be on our side. I knew it wouldn't have been possible to go down the way she had written it with Marlon in the picture, but I loved her ideas so much I wanted things to be as close to her idea as possible without him acting out of character. The crux was, in her headcanon Kit wanted to meet her father in her early Juvies. That's an age where she's still susceptible to forced pack bonding as well as she would have triggered the Alpha instinct of if not all, a few of the Williamses. For a Beta or very stunted Prog, a mother's nurturing instinct is the strongest, but for a morphic human with bio-compulsion at work, the Alpha's instinct to care for a kit is the strongest. A Prog rarely understands exactly to what extent a scent-bond can affect the mind and shift loyalties; The very core of how bond-warfare works. Even if the initial meeting could have played out as per the headcanon, Marlon would have regarded a denial of letting Kit come live with them permanently as kit-theft and would have stopped at nothing to get Kit. Law enforcement, politicians, and judges are all biased towards morphic philosophies, meaning Kate couldn't win in court and if she did she would find herself with a price on her head. That's why I took the liberty to have Brad talk Kate and Kit into waiting to meet Michael until after Kit had started the process of presenting. By then, the tables turn and Marlon would accept Kit's choices if she presented as an Alpha, or be naturally cautious not to get too familiar if she's an Omega due to the weird parental attraction limiting adult Os interactions with Alpha relatives to their ability to resist bio-compulsion. He would resent Kate for the rest of his life but never act on that resentment. 
> 
> Mike, on the other hand, wouldn't consider there to be anything to forgive. He'd mourn that he didn't get to raise his kit, seek solace in the knowledge that two good friends of his helped (something Marlon would hold against Chad and Brad if they were found out before Kit presented), and probably love the woman Kate has become, as strongly as he loved her in college. Their love story is one of miscommunications. While he was campaigning for her to join the pack, he loved her so much that he would have left the pack for her if he understood that he couldn't convince her. He would also be the one of our boys that probably could live happily as a Prog. 
> 
> I won't be writing a meeting between the pack and presented Kit. I don't know the character Kit well enough for that. 
> 
> Anyway, Gamermom's version of Kate is awesome and I love everything about her. If you want to read the headcanon you can find it [HERE](https://writergamermom.tumblr.com/post/176576939089/head-canon-for-packrunners).


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